object:1.53 - The Propitation of Wild Animals By Hunters
book class:The Golden Bough
author class:James George Frazer
subject class:Occultism
class:chapter
LIII. The Propitiation of Wild Animals By Hunters
THE EXPLANATION of life by the theory of an indwelling and
practically immortal soul is one which the savage does not confine
to human beings but extends to the animate creation in general. In
so doing he is more liberal and perhaps more logical than the
civilised man, who commonly denies to animals that privilege of
immortality which he claims for himself. The savage is not so proud;
he commonly believes that animals are endowed with feelings and
intelligence like those of men, and that, like men, they possess
souls which survive the death of their bodies either to wander about
as disembodied spirits or to be born again in animal form.
Thus to the savage, who regards all living creatures as practically
on a footing of equality with man, the act of killing and eating an
animal must wear a very different aspect from that which the same
act presents to us, who regard the intelligence of animals as far
inferior to our own and deny them the possession of immortal souls.
Hence on the principles of his rude philosophy the primitive hunter
who slays an animal believes himself exposed to the vengeance either
of its disembodied spirit or of all the other animals of the same
species, whom he considers as knit together, like men, by the ties
of kin and the obligations of the blood feud, and therefore as bound
to resent the injury done to one of their number. Accordingly the
savage makes it a rule to spare the life of those animals which he
has no pressing motive for killing, at least such fierce and
dangerous animals as are likely to exact a bloody vengeance for the
slaughter of one of their kind. Crocodiles are animals of this sort.
They are only found in hot countries, where, as a rule, food is
abundant and primitive man has therefore little reason to kill them
for the sake of their tough and unpalatable flesh. Hence it is a
custom with some savages to spare crocodiles, or rather only to kill
them in obedience to the law of blood feud, that is, as a
retaliation for the slaughter of men by crocodiles. For example, the
Dyaks of Borneo will not kill a crocodile unless a crocodile has
first killed a man. "For why, say they, should they commit an act of
aggression, when he and his kindred can so easily repay them? But
should the alligator take a human life, revenge becomes a sacred
duty of the living relatives, who will trap the man-eater in the
spirit of an officer of justice pursuing a criminal. Others, even
then, hang back, reluctant to embroil themselves in a quarrel which
does not concern them. The man-eating alligator is supposed to be
pursued by a righteous Nemesis; and whenever one is caught they have
a profound conviction that it must be the guilty one, or his
accomplice."
Like the Dyaks, the natives of Madagascar never kill a crocodile
"except in retaliation for one of their friends who has been
destroyed by a crocodile. They believe that the wanton destruction
of one of these reptiles will be followed by the loss of human life,
in accordance with the principle of _lex talionis._" The people who
live near the lake Itasy in Madagascar make a yearly proclamation to
the crocodiles, announcing that they will revenge the death of some
of their friends by killing as many crocodiles in return, and
warning all well-disposed crocodiles to keep out of the way, as they
have no quarrel with them, but only with their evil-minded relations
who have taken human life. Various tribes of Madagascar believe
themselves to be descended from crocodiles, and accordingly they
view the scaly reptile as, to all intents and purposes, a man and a
brother. If one of the animals should so far forget himself as to
devour one of his human kinsfolk, the chief of the tribe, or in his
absence an old man familiar with the tribal customs, repairs at the
head of the people to the edge of the water, and summons the family
of the culprit to deliver him up to the arm of justice. A hook is
then baited and cast into the river or lake. Next day the guilty
brother, or one of his family, is dragged ashore, and after his
crime has been clearly brought home to him by a strict
interrogation, he is sentenced to death and executed. The claims of
justice being thus satisfied and the majesty of the law fully
vindicated, the deceased crocodile is lamented and buried like a
kinsman; a mound is raised over his relics and a stone marks the
place of his head.
Again, the tiger is another of those dangerous beasts whom the
savage prefers to leave alone, lest by killing one of the species he
should excite the hostility of the rest. No consideration will
induce a Sumatran to catch or wound a tiger except in self-defence
or immediately after a tiger has destroyed a friend or relation.
When a European has set traps for tigers, the people of the
neighbourhood have been known to go by night to the place and
explain to the animals that the traps are not set by them nor with
their consent. The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall, in
Bengal, are very averse to killing a tiger, unless one of their
kinsfolk has been carried off by one of the beasts. In that case
they go out for the purpose of hunting and slaying a tiger; and when
they have succeeded they lay their bows and arrows on the carcase
and invoke God, declaring that they slew the animal in retaliation
for the loss of a kinsman. Vengeance having been thus taken, they
swear not to attack another tiger except under similar provocation.
The Indians of Carolina would not molest snakes when they came upon
them, but would pass by on the other side of the path, believing
that if they were to kill a serpent, the reptile's kindred would
destroy some of their brethren, friends, or relations in return. So
the Seminole Indians spared the rattlesnake, because they feared
that the soul of the dead rattlesnake would incite its kinsfolk to
take vengeance. The Cherokee regard the rattlesnake as the chief of
the snake tribe and fear and respect him accordingly. Few Cherokee
will venture to kill a rattlesnake, unless they cannot help it, and
even then they must atone for the crime by craving pardon of the
snake's ghost either in their own person or through the mediation of
a priest, according to a set formula. If these precautions are
neglected, the kinsfolk of the dead snake will send one of their
number as an avenger of blood, who will track down the murderer and
sting him to death. No ordinary Cherokee dares to kill a wolf, if he
can possibly help it; for he believes that the kindred of the slain
beast would surely avenge its death, and that the weapon with which
the deed had been done would be quite useless for the future, unless
it were cleaned and exorcised by a medicine-man. However, certain
persons who know the proper rites of atonement for such a crime can
kill wolves with impunity, and they are sometimes hired to do so by
people who have suffered from the raids of the wolves on their
cattle or fish-traps. In Jebel-Nuba, a district of the Eastern
Sudan, it is forbidden to touch the nests or remove the young of a
species of black birds, resembling our blackbirds, because the
people believe that the parent birds would avenge the wrong by
causing a stormy wind to blow, which would destroy the harvest.
But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all animals. He must
either eat some of them or starve, and when the question thus comes
to be whether he or the animal must perish, he is forced to overcome
his superstitious scruples and take the life of the beast. At the
same time he does all he can to appease his victims and their
kinsfolk. Even in the act of killing them he testifies his respect
for them, endeavours to excuse or even conceal his share in
procuring their death, and promises that their remains will be
honourably treated. By thus robbing death of its terrors, he hopes
to reconcile his victims to their fate and to induce their fellows
to come and be killed also. For example, it was a principle with the
Kamtchatkans never to kill a land or sea animal without first making
excuses to it and begging that the animal would not take it ill.
Also they offered it cedarnuts and so forth, to make it think that
it was not a victim but a guest at a feast. They believed that this
hindered other animals of the same species from growing shy. For
instance, after they had killed a bear and feasted on its flesh, the
host would bring the bear's head before the company, wrap it in
grass, and present it with a variety of trifles. Then he would lay
the blame of the bear's death on the Russians, and bid the beast
wreak his wrath upon them. Also he would ask the bear to inform the
other bears how well he had been treated, that they too might come
without fear. Seals, sea-lions, and other animals were treated by
the Kamtchatkans with the same ceremonious respect. Moreover, they
used to insert sprigs of a plant resembling bear's wort in the
mouths of the animals they killed; after which they would exhort the
grinning skulls to have no fear but to go and tell it to their
fellows, that they also might come and be caught and so partake of
this splendid hospitality. When the Ostiaks have hunted and killed a
bear, they cut off its head and hang it on a tree. Then they gather
round in a circle and pay it divine honours. Next they run towards
the carcase uttering lamentations and saying, "Who killed you? It
was the Russians. Who cut off your head? It was a Russian axe. Who
skinned you? It was a knife made by a Russian." They explain, too,
that the feathers which sped the arrow on its flight came from the
wing of a strange bird, and that they did nothing but let the arrow
go. They do all this because they believe that the wandering ghost
of the slain bear would attack them on the first opportunity, if
they did not thus appease it. Or they stuff the skin of the slain
bear with hay; and after celebrating their victory with songs of
mockery and insult, after spitting on and kicking it, they set it up
on its hind legs, "and then, for a considerable time, they bestow on
it all the veneration due to a guardian god." When a party of Koryak
have killed a bear or a wolf, they skin the beast and dress one of
themselves in the skin. Then they dance round the skin-clad man,
saying that it was not they who killed the animal, but some one
else, generally a Russian. When they kill a fox they skin it, wrap
the body in grass, and bid him go tell his companions how hospitably
he has been received, and how he has received a new cloak instead of
his old one. A fuller account of the Koryak ceremonies is given by a
more recent writer. He tells us that when a dead bear is brought to
the house, the women come out to meet it, dancing with firebrands.
The bear-skin is taken off along with the head; and one of the women
puts on the skin, dances in it, and entreats the bear not to be
angry, but to be kind to the people. At the same time they offer
meat on a wooden platter to the dead beast, saying, "Eat, friend."
Afterwards a ceremony is performed for the purpose of sending the
dead bear, or rather his spirit, away back to his home. He is
provided with provisions for the journey in the shape of puddings or
reindeer-flesh packed in a grass bag. His skin is stuffed with grass
and carried round the house, after which he is supposed to depart
towards the rising sun. The intention of the ceremonies is to
protect the people from the wrath of the slain bear and his
kinsfolk, and so to ensure success in future bear-hunts. The Finns
used to try to persuade a slain bear that he had not been killed by
them, but had fallen from a tree, or met his death in some other
way; moreover, they held a funeral festival in his honour, at the
close of which bards expatiated on the homage that had been paid to
him, urging him to report to the other bears the high consideration
with which he had been treated, in order that they also, following
his example, might come and be slain. When the Lapps had succeeded
in killing a bear with impunity, they thanked him for not hurting
them and for not breaking the clubs and spears which had given him
his death wounds; and they prayed that he would not visit his death
upon them by sending storms or in any other way. His flesh then
furnished a feast.
The reverence of hunters for the bear whom they regularly kill and
eat may thus be traced all along the northern region of the Old
World from Bering's Straits to Lappland. It reappears in similar
forms in North America. With the American Indians a bear hunt was an
important event for which they prepared by long fasts and
purgations. Before setting out they offered expiatory sacrifices to
the souls of bears slain in previous hunts, and besought them to be
favourable to the hunters. When a bear was killed the hunter lit his
pipe, and putting the mouth of it between the bear's lips, blew into
the bowl, filling the beast's mouth with smoke. Then he begged the
bear not to be angry at having been killed, and not to thwart him
afterwards in the chase. The carcase was roasted whole and eaten;
not a morsel of the flesh might be left over. The head, painted red
and blue, was hung on a post and addressed by orators, who heaped
praise on the dead beast. When men of the Bear clan in the Ottawa
tribe killed a bear, they made him a feast of his own flesh, and
addressed him thus: "Cherish us no grudge because we have killed
you. You have sense; you see that our children are hungry. They love
you and wish to take you into their bodies. Is it not glorious to be
eaten by the children of a chief?" Amongst the Nootka Indians of
British Columbia, when a bear had been killed, it was brought in and
seated before the head chief in an upright posture, with a chief's
bonnet, wrought in figures, on its head, and its fur powdered over
with white down. A tray of provisions was then set before it, and it
was invited by words and gestures to eat. After that the animal was
skinned, boiled, and eaten.
A like respect is testified for other dangerous creatures by the
hunters who regularly trap and kill them. When Caffre hunters are in
the act of showering spears on an elephant, they call out, "Don't
kill us, great captain; don't strike or tread upon us, mighty
chief." When he is dead they make their excuses to him, pretending
that his death was a pure accident. As a mark of respect they bury
his trunk with much solemn ceremony; for they say that "the elephant
is a great lord; his trunk is his hand." Before the Amaxosa Caffres
attack an elephant they shout to the animal and beg him to pardon
them for the slaughter they are about to perpetrate, professing
great submission to his person and explaining clearly the need they
have of his tusks to enable them to procure beads and supply their
wants. When they have killed him they bury in the ground, along with
the end of his trunk, a few of the articles they have obtained for
the ivory, thus hoping to avert some mishap that would otherwise
befall them. Amongst some tribes of Eastern Africa, when a lion is
killed, the carcase is brought before the king, who does homage to
it by prostrating himself on the ground and rubbing his face on the
muzzle of the beast. In some parts of Western Africa if a negro
kills a leopard he is bound fast and brought before the chiefs for
having killed one of their peers. The man defends himself on the
plea that the leopard is chief of the forest and therefore a
stranger. He is then set at liberty and rewarded. But the dead
leopard, adorned with a chief's bonnet, is set up in the village,
where nightly dances are held in its honour. The Baganda greatly
fear the ghosts of buffaloes which they have killed, and they always
appease these dangerous spirits. On no account will they bring the
head of a slain buffalo into a village or into a garden of
plantains: they always eat the flesh of the head in the open
country. Afterwards they place the skull in a small hut built for
the purpose, where they pour out beer as an offering and pray to the
ghost to stay where he is and not to harm them.
Another formidable beast whose life the savage hunter takes with
joy, yet with fear and trembling, is the whale. After the slaughter
of a whale the maritime Koryak of North-eastern Siberia hold a
communal festival, the essential part of which "is based on the
conception that the whale killed has come on a visit to the village;
that it is staying for some time, during which it is treated with
great respect; that it then returns to the sea to repeat its visit
the following year; that it will induce its relatives to come along,
telling them of the hospitable reception that has been accorded to
it. According to the Koryak ideas, the whales, like all other
animals, constitute one tribe, or rather family, of related
individuals, who live in villages like the Koryak. They avenge the
murder of one of their number, and are grateful for kindnesses that
they may have received." When the inhabitants of the Isle of St.
Mary, to the north of Madagascar, go a-whaling, they single out the
young whales for attack and "humbly beg the mother's pardon, stating
the necessity that drives them to kill her progeny, and requesting
that she will be pleased to go below while the deed is doing, that
her maternal feelings may not be outraged by witnessing what must
cause her so much uneasiness." An Ajumba hunter having killed a
female hippopotamus on Lake Azyingo in West Africa, the animal was
decapitated and its quarters and bowels removed. Then the hunter,
naked, stepped into the hollow of the ribs, and kneeling down in the
bloody pool washed his whole body with the blood and excretions of
the animal, while he prayed to the soul of the hippopotamus not to
bear him a grudge for having killed her and so blighted her hopes of
future maternity; and he further entreated the ghost not to stir up
other hippopotamuses to avenge her death by butting at and capsizing
his canoe.
The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for its depredations
by the Indians of Brazil. When they have caught one of these animals
in a snare, they kill it and carry the body home to the village.
There the women deck the carcase with feathers of many colours, put
bracelets on its legs, and weep over it, saying, "I pray thee not to
take vengeance on our little ones for having been caught and killed
through thine own ignorance. For it was not we who deceived thee, it
was thyself. Our husbands only set the trap to catch animals that
are good to eat; they never thought to take thee in it. Therefore,
let not thy soul counsel thy fellows to avenge thy death on our
little ones!" When a Blackfoot Indian has caught eagles in a trap
and killed them, he takes them home to a special lodge, called the
eagles' lodge, which has been prepared for their reception outside
of the camp. Here he sets the birds in a row on the ground, and
propping up their heads on a stick, puts a piece of dried meat in
each of their mouths in order that the spirits of the dead eagles
may go and tell the other eagles how well they are being treated by
the Indians. So when Indian hunters of the Orinoco region have
killed an animal, they open its mouth and pour into it a few drops
of the liquor they generally carry with them, in order that the soul
of the dead beast may inform its fellows of the welcome it has met
with, and that they too, cheered by the prospect of the same kind
reception, may come with alacrity to be killed. When a Teton Indian
is on a journey, and he meets a grey spider or a spider with yellow
legs, he kills it, because some evil would befall him if he did not.
But he is very careful not to let the spider know that he kills it,
for if the spider knew, his soul would go and tell the other
spiders, and one of them would be sure to avenge the death of his
relation. So in crushing the insect, the Indian says, "O Grandfather
Spider, the Thunder-beings kill you." And the spider is crushed at
once and believes what is told him. His soul probably runs and tells
the other spiders that the Thunder-beings have killed him; but no
harm comes of that. For what can grey or yellow-legged spiders do to
the Thunder-beings?
But it is not merely dangerous creatures with whom the savage
desires to keep on good terms. It is true that the respect which he
pays to wild beasts is in some measure proportioned to their
strength and ferocity. Thus the savage Stiens of Cambodia, believing
that all animals have souls which roam about after their death, beg
an animal's pardon when they kill it, lest its soul should come and
torment them. Also they offer it sacrifices, but these sacrifices
are proportioned to the size and strength of the animal. The
ceremonies which they observe at the death of an elephant are
conducted with much pomp and last seven days. Similar distinctions
are drawn by North American Indians. "The bear, the buffalo, and the
beaver are manidos [divinities] which furnish food. The bear is
formidable, and good to eat. They render ceremonies to him, begging
him to allow himself to be eaten, although they know he has no fancy
for it. We kill you, but you are not annihilated. His head and paws
are objects of homage. . . . Other animals are treated similarly
from similar reasons. . . . Many of the animal manidos, not being
dangerous, are often treated with contempt--the terrapin, the
weasel, polecat, etc." The distinction is instructive. Animals which
are feared, or are good to eat, or both, are treated with
ceremonious respect; those which are neither formidable nor good to
eat are despised. We have had examples of reverence paid to animals
which are both feared and eaten. It remains to prove that similar
respect is shown to animals which, without being feared, are either
eaten or valued for their skins.
When Siberian sable-hunters have caught a sable, no one is allowed
to see it, and they think that if good or evil be spoken of the
captured sable no more sables will be caught. A hunter has been
known to express his belief that the sables could hear what was said
of them as far off as Moscow. He said that the chief reason why the
sable hunt was now so unproductive was that some live sables had
been sent to Moscow. There they had been viewed with astonishment as
strange animals, and the sables cannot abide that. Another, though
minor, cause of the diminished take of sables was, he alleged, that
the world is now much worse than it used to be, so that nowadays a
hunter will sometimes hide the sable which he has got instead of
putting it into the common stock. This also, said he, the sables
cannot abide. Alaskan hunters preserve the bones of sables and
beavers out of reach of the dogs for a year and then bury them
carefully, "lest the spirits who look after the beavers and sables
should consider that they are regarded with contempt, and hence no
more should be killed or trapped." The Canadian Indians were equally
particular not to let their dogs gnaw the bones, or at least certain
of the bones, of beavers. They took the greatest pains to collect
and preserve these bones, and, when the beaver had been caught in a
net, they threw them into the river. To a Jesuit who argued that the
beavers could not possibly know what became of their bones, the
Indians replied, "You know nothing about catching beavers and yet
you will be prating about it. Before the beaver is stone dead, his
soul takes a turn in the hut of the man who is killing him and makes
a careful note of what is done with his bones. If the bones are
given to the dogs, the other beavers would get word of it and would
not let themselves be caught. Whereas, if their bones are thrown
into the fire or a river, they are quite satisfied; and it is
particularly gratifying to the net which caught them." Before
hunting the beaver they offered a solemn prayer to the Great Beaver,
and presented him with tobacco; and when the chase was over, an
orator pronounced a funeral oration over the dead beavers. He
praised their spirit and wisdom. "You will hear no more," said he,
"the voice of the chieftains who commanded you and whom you chose
from among all the warrior beavers to give you laws. Your language,
which the medicine-men understand perfectly, will be heard no more
at the bottom of the lake. You will fight no more battles with the
otters, your cruel foes. No, beavers! But your skins shall serve to
buy arms; we will carry your smoked hams to our children; we will
keep the dogs from eating your bones, which are so hard."
The elan, deer, and elk were treated by the American Indians with
the same punctilious respect, and for the same reason. Their bones
might not be given to the dogs nor thrown into the fire, nor might
their fat be dropped upon the fire, because the souls of the dead
animals were believed to see what was done to their bodies and to
tell it to the other beasts, living and dead. Hence, if their bodies
were illused, the animals of that species would not allow themselves
to be taken, neither in this world nor in the world to come. Among
the Chiquites of Paraguay a sick man would be asked by the
medicine-man whether he had not thrown away some of the flesh of the
deer or turtle, and if he answered yes, the medicine-man would say,
"That is what is killing you. The soul of the deer or turtle has
entered into your body to avenge the wrong you did it." The Canadian
Indians would not eat the embryos of the elk, unless at the close of
the hunting season; otherwise the mother-elks would be shy and
refuse to be caught.
In the Timor-laut islands of the Indian Archipelago the skulls of
all the turtles which a fisherman has caught are hung up under his
house. Before he goes out to catch another, he addresses himself to
the skull of the last turtle that he killed, and having inserted
betel between its jaws, he prays the spirit of the dead animal to
entice its kinsfolk in the sea to come and be caught. In the Poso
district of Central Celebes hunters keep the jawbones of deer and
wild pigs which they have killed and hang them up in their houses
near the fire. Then they say to the jawbones, "Ye cry after your
comrades, that your grandfathers, or nephews, or children may not go
away." Their notion is that the souls of the dead deer and pigs
tarry near their jawbones and attract the souls of living deer and
pigs, which are thus drawn into the toils of the hunter. Thus the
wily savage employs dead animals as decoys to lure living animals to
their doom.
The Lengua Indians of the Gran Chaco love to hunt the ostrich, but
when they have killed one of these birds and are bringing home the
carcase to the village, they take steps to outwit the resentful
ghost of their victim. They think that when the first natural shock
of death is passed, the ghost of the ostrich pulls himself together
and makes after his body. Acting on this sage calculation, the
Indians pluck feathers from the breast of the bird and strew them at
intervals along the track. At every bunch of feathers the ghost
stops to consider, "Is this the whole of my body or only a part of
it?" The doubt gives him pause, and when at last he has made up his
mind fully at all the bunches, and has further wasted valuable time
by the zigzag course which he invariably pursues in going from one
to another, the hunters are safe at home, and the bilked ghost may
stalk in vain round about the village, which he is too timid to
enter.
The Esquimaux about Bering Strait believe that the souls of dead
sea-beasts, such as seals, walrus, and whales, remain attached to
their bladders, and that by returning the bladders to the sea they
can cause the souls to be reincarnated in fresh bodies and so
multiply the game which the hunters pursue and kill. Acting on this
belief every hunter carefully removes and preserves the bladders of
all the sea-beasts that he kills; and at a solemn festival held once
a year in winter these bladders, containing the souls of all the
sea-beasts that have been killed throughout the year, are honoured
with dances and offerings of food in the public assembly-room, after
which they are taken out on the ice and thrust through holes into
the water; for the simple Esquimaux imagine that the souls of the
animals, in high good humour at the kind treatment they have
experienced, will thereafter be born again as seals, walrus, and
whales, and in that form will flock willingly to be again speared,
harpooned, or otherwise done to death by the hunters.
For like reasons, a tribe which depends for its subsistence, chiefly
or in part, upon fishing is careful to treat the fish with every
mark of honour and respect. The Indians of Peru "adored the fish
that they caught in greatest abundance; for they said that the first
fish that was made in the world above (for so they named Heaven)
gave birth to all other fish of that species, and took care to send
them plenty of its children to sustain their tribe. For this reason
they worshipped sardines in one region, where they killed more of
them than of any other fish; in others, the skate; in others, the
dogfish; in others, the golden fish for its beauty; in others, the
crawfish; in others, for want of larger gods, the crabs, where they
had no other fish, or where they knew not how to catch and kill
them. In short, they had whatever fish was most serviceable to them
as their gods." The Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia think that
when a salmon is killed its soul returns to the salmon country.
Hence they take care to throw the bones and offal into the sea, in
order that the soul may reanimate them at the resurrection of the
salmon. Whereas if they burned the bones the soul would be lost, and
so it would be quite impossible for that salmon to rise from the
dead. In like manner the Ottawa Indians of Canada, believing that
the souls of dead fish passed into other bodies of fish, never
burned fish bones, for fear of displeasing the souls of the fish,
who would come no more to the nets. The Hurons also refrained from
throwing fish bones into the fire, lest the souls of the fish should
go and warn the other fish not to let themselves be caught, since
the Hurons would burn their bones. Moreover, they had men who
preached to the fish and persuaded them to come and be caught. A
good preacher was much sought after, for they thought that the
exhortations of a clever man had a great effect in drawing the fish
to the nets. In the Huron fishing village where the French
missionary Sagard stayed, the preacher to the fish prided himself
very much on his eloquence, which was of a florid order. Every
evening after supper, having seen that all the people were in their
places and that a strict silence was observed, he preached to the
fish. His text was that the Hurons did not burn fish bones. "Then
enlarging on this theme with extraordinary unction, he exhorted and
conjured and invited and implored the fish to come and be caught and
to be of good courage and to fear nothing, for it was all to serve
their friends who honoured them and did not burn their bones." The
natives of the Duke of York Island annually decorate a canoe with
flowers and ferns, lade it, or are supposed to lade it, with
shell-money, and set it adrift to compensate the fish for their
fellows who have been caught and eaten. It is especially necessary
to treat the first fish caught with consideration in order to
conciliate the rest of the fish, whose conduct may be supposed to be
influenced by the reception given to those of their kind which were
the first to be taken. Accordingly the Maoris always put back into
the sea the first fish caught, "with a prayer that it may tempt
other fish to come and be caught."
Still more stringent are the precautions taken when the fish are the
first of the season. On salmon rivers, when the fish begin to run up
the stream in spring, they are received with much deference by
tribes who, like the Indians of the Pacific Coast of North America,
subsist largely upon a fish diet. In British Columbia the Indians
used to go out to meet the first fish as they came up the river:
"They paid court to them, and would address them thus: 'You fish,
you fish; you are all chiefs, you are; you are all chiefs.'" Amongst
the Tlingit of Alaska the first halibut of the season is carefully
handled and addressed as a chief, and a festival is given in his
honour, after which the fishing goes on. In spring, when the winds
blow soft from the south and the salmon begin to run up the Klamath
river, the Karoks of California dance for salmon, to ensure a good
catch. One of the Indians, called the Kareya or God-man, retires to
the mountains and fasts for ten days. On his return the people flee,
while he goes to the river, takes the first salmon of the catch,
eats some of it, and with the rest kindles the sacred fire in the
sweating house. "No Indian may take a salmon before this dance is
held, nor for ten days after it, even if his family are starving."
The Karoks also believe that a fisherman will take no salmon if the
poles of which his spearing-booth is made were gathered on the
river-side, where the salmon might have seen them. The poles must be
brought from the top of the highest mountain. The fisherman will
also labour in vain if he uses the same poles a second year in
booths or weirs, "because the old salmon will have told the young
ones about them." There is a favourite fish of the Aino which appears
in their rivers about May and June. They prepare for the fishing by
observing rules of ceremonial purity, and when they have gone out to
fish, the women at home must keep strict silence or the fish would
hear them and disappear. When the first fish is caught he is brought
home and passed through a small opening at the end of the hut, but
not through the door; for if he were passed through the door, "the
other fish would certainly see him and disappear." This may partly
explain the custom observed by other savages of bringing game in
certain cases into their huts, not by the door, but by the window,
the smoke-hole, or by a special opening at the back of the hut.
With some savages a special reason for respecting the bones of game,
and generally of the animals which they eat, is a belief that, if
the bones are preserved, they will in course of time be reclothed
with flesh, and thus the animal will come to life again. It is,
therefore, clearly for the interest of the hunter to leave the bones
intact since to destroy them would be to diminish the future supply
of game. Many of the Minnetaree Indians "believe that the bones of
those bisons which they have slain and divested of flesh rise again
clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and become fat,
and fit for slaughter the succeeding June." Hence on the western
prairies of America, the skulls of buffaloes may be seen arranged in
circles and symmetrical piles, awaiting the resurrection. After
feasting on a dog, the Dacotas carefully collect the bones, scrape,
wash, and bury them, "partly, as it is said, to testify to the
dog-species, that in feasting upon one of their number no disrespect
was meant to the species itself, and partly also from a belief that
the bones of the animal will rise and reproduce another." In
sacrificing an animal the Lapps regularly put aside the bones, eyes,
ears, heart, lungs, sexual parts (if the animal was a male), and a
morsel of flesh from each limb. Then, after eating the remainder of
the flesh, they laid the bones and the rest in anatomical order in a
coffin and buried them with the usual rites, believing that the god
to whom the animal was sacrificed would reclothe the bones with
flesh and restore the animal to life in Jabme-Aimo, the subterranean
world of the dead. Sometimes, as after feasting on a bear, they seem
to have contented themselves with thus burying the bones. Thus the
Lapps expected the resurrection of the slain animal to take place in
another world, resembling in this respect the Kamtchatkans, who
believed that every creature, down to the smallest fly, would rise
from the dead and live underground. On the other hand, the North
American Indians looked for the resurrection of the animals in the
present world. The habit, observed especially by Mongolian peoples,
of stuffing the skin of a sacrificed animal, or stretching it on a
framework, points rather to a belief in a resurrection of the latter
sort. The objection commonly entertained by primitive peoples to
break the bones of the animals which they have eaten or sacrificed
may be based either on a belief in the resurrection of the animals,
or on a fear of intimidating other creatures of the same species and
offending the ghosts of the slain animals. The reluctance of North
American Indians and Esquimaux to let dogs gnaw the bones of animals
is perhaps only a precaution to prevent the bones from being broken.
But after all the resurrection of dead game may have its
inconveniences, and accordingly some hunters take steps to prevent
it by hamstringing the animal so as to prevent it or its ghost from
getting up and running away. This is the motive alleged for the
practice by Koui hunters in Laos; they think that the spells which
they utter in the chase may lose their magical virtue, and that the
slaughtered animal may consequently come to life again and escape.
To prevent that catastrophe they therefore hamstring the beast as
soon as they have butchered it. When an Esquimau of Alaska has
killed a fox, he carefully cuts the tendons of all the animal's legs
in order to prevent the ghost from reanimating the body and walking
about. But hamstringing the carcase is not the only measure which
the prudent savage adopts for the sake of disabling the ghost of his
victim. In old days, when the Aino went out hunting and killed a fox
first, they took care to tie its mouth up tightly in order to
prevent the ghost of the animal from sallying forth and warning its
fellows against the approach of the hunter. The Gilyaks of the Amoor
River put out the eyes of the seals they have killed, lest the
ghosts of the slain animals should know their slayers and avenge
their death by spoiling the seal-hunt.
Besides the animals which primitive man dreads for their strength
and ferocity, and those which he reveres on account of the benefits
which he expects from them, there is another class of creatures
which he sometimes deems it necessary to conciliate by worship and
sacrifice. These are the vermin that infest his crops and his
cattle. To rid himself of these deadly foes the farmer has recourse
to many superstitious devices, of which, though some are meant to
destroy or intimidate the vermin, others aim at propitiating them
and persuading them by fair means to spare the fruits of the earth
and the herds. Thus Esthonian peasants, in the island of Oesel,
stand in great awe of the weevil, an insect which is exceedingly
destructive to the grain. They give it a fine name, and if a child
is about to kill a weevil they say, "Don't do it; the more we hurt
him, the more he hurts us." If they find a weevil they bury it in
the earth instead of killing it. Some even put the weevil under a
stone in the field and offer corn to it. They think that thus it is
appeased and does less harm. Amongst the Saxons of Transylvania, in
order to keep sparrows from the corn, the sower begins by throwing
the first handful of seed backwards over his head, saying, "That is
for you, sparrows." To guard the corn against the attacks of
leaf-flies he shuts his eyes and scatters three handfuls of oats in
different directions. Having made this offering to the leaf-flies he
feels sure that they will spare the corn. A Transylvanian way of
securing the crops against all birds, beasts, and insects, is this:
after he has finished sowing, the sower goes once more from end to
end of the field imitating the gesture of sowing, but with an empty
hand. As he does so he says, "I sow this for the animals; I sow it
for every thing that flies and creeps, that walks and stands, that
sings and springs, in the name of God the Father, etc." The
following is a German way of freeing a garden from caterpillars.
After sunset or at midnight the mistress of the house, or another
female member of the family, walks all round the garden dragging a
broom after her. She may not look behind her, and must keep
murmuring, "Good evening, Mother Caterpillar, you shall come with
your husband to church." The garden gate is left open till the
following morning.
Sometimes in dealing with vermin the farmer aims at hitting a happy
mean between excessive rigour on the one hand and weak indulgence on
the other; kind but firm, he tempers severity with mercy. An ancient
Greek treatise on farming advises the husbandman who would rid his
lands of mice to act thus: "Take a sheet of paper and write on it as
follows: 'I adjure you, ye mice here present, that ye neither injure
me nor suffer another mouse to do so. I give you yonder field' (here
you specify the field); 'but if ever I catch you here again, by the
Mother of the Gods I will rend you in seven pieces.' Write this, and
stick the paper on an unhewn stone in the field before sunrise,
taking care to keep the written side up." In the Ardennes they say
that to get rid of rats you should repeat the following words:
"_Erat verbum, apud Deum vestrum._ Male rats and female rats, I
conjure you, by the great God, to go out of my house, out of all my
habitations, and to betake yourselves to such and such a place,
there to end your days. _Decretis, reversis et desembarassis virgo
potens, clemens, justitiae._" Then write the same words on pieces of
paper, fold them up, and place one of them under the door by which
the rats are to go forth, and the other on the road which they are
to take. This exorcism should be performed at sunrise. Some years
ago an American farmer was reported to have written a civil letter
to the rats, telling them that his crops were short, that he could
not afford to keep them through the winter, that he had been very
kind to them, and that for their own good he thought they had better
leave him and go to some of his neighbours who had more grain. This
document he pinned to a post in his barn for the rats to read.
Sometimes the desired object is supposed to be attained by treating
with high distinction one or two chosen individuals of the obnoxious
species, while the rest are pursued with relentless rigour. In the
East Indian island of Bali, the mice which ravage the rice-fields
are caught in great numbers, and burned in the same way that corpses
are burned. But two of the captured mice are allowed to live, and
receive a little packet of white linen. Then the people bow down
before them, as before gods, and let them go. When the farms of the
Sea Dyaks or Ibans of Sarawak are much pestered by birds and
insects, they catch a specimen of each kind of vermin (one sparrow,
one grasshopper, and so on), put them in a tiny boat of bark
well-stocked with provisions, and then allow the little vessel with
its obnoxious passengers to float down the river. If that does not
drive the pests away, the Dyaks resort to what they deem a more
effectual mode of accomplishing the same purpose. They make a clay
crocodile as large as life and set it up in the fields, where they
offer it food, rice-spirit, and cloth, and sacrifice a fowl and a
pig before it. Mollified by these attentions, the ferocious animal
very soon gobbles up all the creatures that devour the crops. In
Albania, if the fields or vineyards are ravaged by locusts or
beetles, some of the women will assemble with dishevelled hair,
catch a few of the insects, and march with them in a funeral
procession to a spring or stream, in which they drown the creatures.
Then one of the women sings, "O locusts and beetles who have left us
bereaved," and the dirge is taken up and repeated by all the women
in chorus. Thus by celebrating the obsequies of a few locusts and
beetles, they hope to bring about the death of them all. When
caterpillars invaded a vineyard or field in Syria, the virgins were
gathered, and one of the caterpillars was taken and a girl made its
mother. Then they bewailed and buried it. Thereafter they conducted
the "mother" to the place where the caterpillars were, consoling
her, in order that all the caterpillars might leave the garden.
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